Prashant Bhushan

Prashant Bhushan (born 15 October 1956) is an Indian author and a public interest lawyer in the Supreme Court of India. He was a member of the faction of the India Against Corruption (IAC) movement known as Team Anna which supported Anna Hazare's campaign for the implementation of the Jan Lokpal Bill. After a split in IAC, he helped Team Anna form the Aam Aadmi Party. In 2015, he made several allegations against the party's leadership, its functioning and its deviation from the core ideology, values and commitments. He is one of the founders of Swaraj Abhiyan and Sambhaavnaa, an Institute of Public Policy and Politics.

Prashant Bhushan is the oldest of the three children of Shanti Bhushan and Kumud Bhushan. His father was a lawyer-activist and a former Union Law Minister in the Morarji Desai government.

Bhushan was educated at St. Joseph's High School, Prayagraj, and at the St Joseph's College, Allahabad. Bhushan, who dropped out of IIT Madras after first semester and briefly attended Princeton University has a degree in law from Allahabad University. While still a student, Bhushan wrote The Case That Shook India, a book on the case that set aside Indira Gandhi's election in 1974. Bhushan has a B.A. and LL.B. degree from Allahabad University. He dropped out of Princeton University's Ph.D. program, but obtained an M.A. in philosophy of science.

Bhushan was drawn to public activism, influenced by his father. His main areas of interest have been human rights, environmental protection and accountability of the public servants. He is associated with various organisations, including the Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL), People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), and Transparency International (India). He is also the convenor of the Working Committee of the Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Judicial Reforms.

Bhushan states that he has taken up about 500 cases dealing with "good causes". His family background allowed him to work on a pro-bono basis for such cases: according to him, he effectively spends only 25 per cent of his time on paid cases, charging 5 per cent of what other lawyers charge. He has criticised the other professional lawyers as "amoral" and claims that he never takes up a case unless he feels that his client is "morally right".

Bhushan says that he envisages a transparent and honest legal system, where people can negotiate their own cases without the need of any lawyers. In 1990, he and his father formed the Committee on Judicial Accountability (CJA) to fight corruption in the judiciary. The organisation comprised some lawyers and ex-judges. Prashant Bhushan started focusing more on this issue in 1993, after the Supreme Court Justice V. Ramaswami was not impeached by parliament on corruption charges. In 2007, the Bhushans expanded CJA to include citizens and form the Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reform (CJAR).

In 2009, Prashant Bhushan represented activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal, asking for the Supreme Court and High Court judges to be brought under RTI. The judges were forced to declare their assets and post it on the court websites.

In a 2009 interview, Bhushan alleged that at least half of the 16 former chief justices in the Supreme Court were corrupt. Harish Salve filed a contempt case against him in 2010, and the Supreme Court asked Bhushan to apologise. In response, Bhushan submitted an explanation stating why he felt those judges were corrupt. The Bhushans noted the difficulty of getting documentary evidence because judges are immune from investigation. Krishna Iyer, a former Supreme Court judge, said that either the Bhushans should be punished for making "false charges" or an independent authority should be set up to scrutinise their allegations.